Will be a difficult match this one.
I watched Bristol on Sky away to Sheff Wed and they should have won that game. They went a goal down but kept attacking, equalised and but for a good save from Wednesday’s keeper near the end would have won it.
Well I said it would be difficult and it was.
Credit for keeping fighting to the end. I can’t quite agree with the manager that we deserved to win.
We obviously started dreadfully. Johnston was totally outpaced down their right, Toal couldn’t prevent the centre and their centre forward had an easy tap in.
A few minutes later, Johnston was again outpaced but this time we somehow, fortunately, scrambled the centre away when it looked for all the world that a second goal would come.
Then the game settled into a pattern for the remaining 90+ minutes. We huffed and puffed, Bristol used all the dark arts to slow the game down, the referee, who was awful, couldn’t control the game and we feared the worst.
Kachunga got clear and got a save from the keeper when really he should have been finishing better, Bodvarsson shot straight at the keeper from a good chance and Afolayan shot just over.
Bristol managed to threaten with some decent passing. Their passing and movement off the ball was better than ours as we just huffed and puffed.
One thing to note was, without Santos, there was little or no passing across the back 4 but there was also no long diagonal passes that Santos provides.
Second half we continued pressing and Bristol got ridiculous with their time wasting. Bodvarsson got concussed and replaced by Charles who missed a good chance from a header and then missed a one on one with the keeper.
Our reward came when yet another corner was pumped into the box, cleared but played straight back in for Charles to curl a lovely goal in.
We could have stolen it with pressure in the last few minutes but skulduggery and a rotten referee allowed time to be played out.
A good recovery but points disappointedly dropped.
Other points to note:-
- Our corners and free kicks were awful. Until the last few minutes, Morley took everyone and everyone was easily cleared by a Bristol head. We just do not present a challenge at all,
- Our midfield played too deep. Morley rarely got forward at all and so we were short of a defence splitting pass,
- The manager thought we deserved to win. I am not quite sure that we deserved to win,
- Yet again, we struggled to battle against time wasting tactics,
- Declan John is our best LWB.
- Can someone please persuade me that Kachunga is better than Kieran Lee in that role because I don’t see it
Marks:-
Trafford - 6 Not really much to do
Bradley - 7 Got forward well but final pass/centre a bit off
Jones - 6 Reasonable but could he have cleared the ball in for their goal
Toal - 5 Bits of inexperience. Could perhaps have stopped the centre coming in for their goal
Johnston - 4 Totally outpaced for their goal and then again a few minutes later. Better in the 2nd half.
Beck - 5 Bit nervous at the start then picked up. I don’t see though that he is any better than Declan John
Morley - 4 Much too deep for me. All his passes were 20 or 30 yard ones which it is difficult to be accurate with. Awful corners
Thomason - 5 Stupid booking. Injured
Kachunga - 4 One shot saved which he probably should have done better with. Just useless running around and constant diving.
Bodvarsson - 5 Shot straight at keeper from good chance and held the ball up well. Injured
Afolayan - 6 Busy. Most of his runs/dribbles did not come off but he looked the most likely to open Bristol up
Williams - 6 Did OK when he came on. I think he is the best for the defensive midfield role
Charles - 5 Looked totally out of touch and missed 2 good chances but then an excellent finish for the equaliser.
Bakayoko - 5 Couldn’t affect the game although he was involved more than lately
Sadlier - 6 Came on too late. Much better corners than Morley produced.